Kentucky, like many states settled in America's early frontier period, presented many challenges for the first pioneers.  These challenges eventually translated into a unique cuisine reflecting the collective heritage of folks hailing from several regions of the globe.  The following ecclectic buffet illustrates the hard work and love for life of the folks who call Kentucky home.

About early Kentucky's culinary heritage

"The Kentucky region formed the western part of the wilderness granted to Virginia under the royal charter of 1609. By 1729 hunters began to visit the thick forests of what is now eastern Kentucky. These early explorers were known as "long hunters," either because they stayed away months at a time or because of the long rifles they carried...When the Cumberland Gap, a pass through the Appalachian mountains, was discovered in 1750, it opened the area of Kentucky for exploration and settlement. Daniel Boone passed through the Gap in 1769 and spent almost two years exploring Kentucky.

He blazed what is now called the Wilderness Road and opened the Kentucky frontier of settlement... One of the earliest dishes of Kentucky was a hunter's stew.  It was made without a recipe and consisted of whatever choice pieces of meat from freshly killed game were available.  The meat--deer, elk, bear, or wild turkey--was cooked in an open kettle over a fire. Dried sage and pepper were added to give the stew an English flavor. At the end of a long hunt, the supply of cornmeal was usually exhausted, and the hunters realised solely on meat for subsistance. Since the breast of the wild turkey had a bland taste and grainy texture, it became the hunter's bread. Roasted kidney or stewed bear's liver was served on the "bread" and provided a contrast of flavors as well as textures. Colonists from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee--mostly of English, Scotch-Irish, or German extraction--established the first white settlements in Kentucky in 1774.

They brought basic supplies such as cornmeal, salt, smoked ham and bacon, and hard-to-get wheat flour.  As soon as land was cleared, the settlers planted corn, which provided food for themselves and their livestock. They also used corn to make distilled whiskey...  Early Kentucky Foods. Wheat did not grow well in the Kentucky soil, and corn proved to be a hardier crop.  The little bit of wheat flour the settlers could obtain, at about four times the price of cornmeal, was saved for special uses, such as biscuits for company, a pie crust, or gingerbread. Cornmeal was used for most breads and for mush... The settlers planted some of the vegetables to which they had become accustomed in their previous eastern homes.

These included Irish and sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and okra. Green beans simmered all day with bacon was a favorite dish. By serving time the beans had almost turned to mush, but the smoky flavor of the bacon was delicious. Sometimes cut-up Irish potatoes, okra, and chunks of corn were added to the bean dish, making it a vegetable stew.  Almost as soon as the first green sprouts appeared above the ground in the spring, the women gathered wild greens while the men plowed the fields for planting. The greens were cooked with smoked ham hocks, hog jowl, bacon, or "pot likker" (juice that had been saved from greens previously cooked with cured or smoked meats).  "A mess of greens" was a welcome treat after having only root and dried vegetables over winter...  In the hills of Kentucky, bear was the common game and was treated similar to pork by smoking the bear hams and bear bacon...Burgoo Stew is probably the most famous Kentucky dish.  Its recipe has been handed down through the generations.  No two burgoo stews are alike, however, and no one really know where the name came from.  Some say it is a mispronounciation of barbecue, while other say it is a slurred word for bird stew. 

In frontier days it was a hunter's stew made from available meats or game. Most burgoo recipes combined one kind of fowl with a red meat. They all had a variety of vegetables, with which the most common were tomatoes, lima beans, corn, onions, and potatoes. The stew was slowly simmered for many hours and seasoned with peppers, curry powder, file powder, bourbon, spices, and herbs. The type and amount of seasonings were up to the cook."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Hong Kong] 1992 (p. 72-3)

Historic recipes